back gems in your bag. A qualified fitter will happily help you test your clubs versus the latest models and let you decide how much better a new set would be. Then you get to figure out whether “that much better” is worth the invest- ment or you’re content being “that much worse.” The choice is yours.
irons are designed to make mis-hits better, and super-game-improvement irons focus on getting the ball in the air. It’s a subtle but significant difference. Regardless of whether you believe innovation has plateaued (it hasn’t), you now have access to tools that explicitly tell you how much better that new set of irons is than the throw-
out of it. The common refrain from less-skilled players is, “I’m not good enough.” Frankly, nothing gets fitters more riled up than this misconception. “The best response to anyone who says they aren’t good enough to get fit is that they’re not good enough not to get fit,” says Scott Felix, the owner of Felix Clubworks in Tennessee, which is a perennial honoree on Golf Digest’s 100 Best Clubfitters list. The logic here is if you’re playing with ill-fitted equipment, you are constantly fighting your clubs and likely develop- ing swing flaws to compensate for that equipment problem. If you are able to hit the ball in the air more often than you are topping or chunking it, you’re ready to see if a fitting might make a difference. Regardless of skill level, everyone has a swing DNA. “If you can do it every time, let’s rock ’n’ roll,” says Chris Marchini, director of performance and innovation for Golf Galaxy. “I’ve had players over the years walk in and say, ‘I hit a really big slice every time,’ to which I replied, ‘That’s wonderful.’ They looked at me like I had two heads. However, what they didn’t realise is they are far more consistent than they gave themselves credit for. My point is, we had something to work with. The club path, the face angle . . . that move was probably pretty consistent.” Hot List player-tester Todd Wade, a 13-handicap from California, saw the difference. Reviewing one of the iron models in the game-improvement cat- egory from this year’s Hot List, he said, “It delivered the best launched ball that I’ve experienced. A true, high ball flight after a crisp and immediate feel as the ball comes off the club. Great look to the club and nicely balanced through- out the swing. Even felt like there was some workability to the ball as a result of the clubface.” Interestingly, the majority of the clubs picked by our struggling iron players are from the game-improve- ment category and not super-game- improvement clubs, which seemingly promise the most forgiveness. There’s a reason for that. Game-improvement
HOT LIST TESTING Our testers who struggle with iron play generally preferred game- improvement irons. Here’s what a few of them liked best – and why.
GARY ABBOTT, 38 13-handicap Callaway Quantum Max “Everyone’s going to turn and look who hit it. It’s going right where you want it to go with tremendous distance and coming down with a good descent angle. In the sweet spot, I felt that nice kind of energetic transfer of energy.”
MATT NESTLER, 28 7-handicap
TIM LINN, 45 17-handicap
DAN LUPO, 33 11-handicap
Srixon ZXiR HL
Titleist T350
Ping G440
“I felt like the club was doing the work for me. It minimised my fade. It was consistent in hitting my targets. My mis- hits were straight and minimised any sort of danger I might get myself in.”
“Shots came out very springy and high, but it wasn’t to the point where it’s floating and felt like you were losing distance. There was a steeper descent angle even with the longer irons. I felt like I could hold a green on approach shots with a 5-iron.”
“This design helps you find the centre of the clubface. There’s an offset to them that forces you to forward press at address, which can be helpful. It stayed on line and went straight. You can’t complain about that.”
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 73
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2026
PHOTOGRAPHS BY J D CUBAN
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